Two ambitious economic development plans promoted by the Québec provincial government will boost infrastructure investment in the Canadian province: the Maritime Strategy and the Northern Plan. The former concernsthe development of a logistics hub along the St. Lawrence and the latter the development of natural resources north of the 49th parallel.
The network of canals along the St. Lawrence River, known as the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which connects ports on the Atlantic to the Midwest 
america, represents the shortest route for cargo traffic to and from Europe. The Seaway crosses the Quebec - Ontario corridor the two largest economic entities in Canada (the two provinces, in fact, generate more than 60 percent of the country's GDP and 75 percent of manufacturing output).The annual value of goods moving along the St. Lawrence is estimated at CAD 650 billion. The Québec provincial government plans to create logistics hub to further enhance freight traffic on the province's canal network and intermodal hubs and especially the Port of Montreal, the country's main commercial hub, along with Vancouver, with 1.3 million TEUs per year. The investment planned by the province to build the logistics hub's infrastructure is CAD 500 million. The hub is expected to be built in the Vaudreuil-Solanges region, near Montréal.
The logistics hub, intermodal, according to government forecasts, will alone be responsible for an additional traffic of 430,000 containers a year.However, the project is an integral part of a large-scale Maritime Strategy for the province, a strategy that will lead to private investment of more than CAD 4 billion and public investment in infrastructure of CAD 3 billion over the next 15 years.
Other major projects in the Maritime Strategy include the upgrading of the deep-water ports of Québec, Port-Cartier, Cacouna, and Sept-Iles, all along the St. Lawrence River, and the development of strategic rail links, for example between Labrador and the port of Sept-Iles.
Two important factors that prompted the provincial government to launch the Maritime Strategy are: a) The expansion of the Panama Canal and the need for Québec to have a modern and dynamic infrastructure in order to keep the Saint Lawrence Seaway trade route competitive. b) The opening, in the coming decades, of the Northwest Passage, which will shorten the distance between Asia and Europe by 7,000 km.
Through the Northern Plan, the Quebec government aims, on the other hand, at resource exploitation and economic development of the regions north of the 49th parallel. The plan calls for massive investments, CAD 50 billion over a 20-year period, in the port, rail and road infrastructure of the province's north.
Through the development of these infrastructures and links, the province will be able to reduce the transportation costs of resources and the logistics costs associated with their exploitation.
The government has already allocated CAD 2 billion for infrastructure projects and the construction of roads, airports and schools.
Public investment under the Northern Plan is expected to be complemented by investment from private companies. The government expects an investment on the Northern Plan sica by mining companies of CAD 28 billion in new exploration projects.
Hydro Québec (responsible for power generation and distribution in the province) will invest CAD 20 billion in renewable energy development over the same period.
The Société du Plan Nord is the main forum for coordinating the various projects and components of the Plan Nord. The company's mission will be to contribute to the integrated and coherent development of the territory, in accordance with guidelines set by the government, in agreement with representatives of the regions and indigenous peoples and the private sector.
For the purpose of stimulating research and innovation, as well as environmental and social sustainability in the Plan Nord regions, theIstitut Nordique du Québec was created to coordinate the activities of three major RS hubs Universite' de Laval, Universite' McGill, and the Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS).